Papers assembled by Hélène Spir Claparède and sent to Harvard philosophy professor
William Ernest Hocking as gift to the Harvard University Library. For additional
acquisition information, see correspondence between William Ernest Hocking and
Hélène Spir Claparède in the papers of William Ernest Hocking item (1192) also at
the Houghton Library.

This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the
Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with
Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval
policies and times.

African Alexandrovich Spir (1837-1890) [also known as Afrikan
Spir] was born in the city of Yelisawetgrad,
Ukraine. He left Russia permanently in 1867,
studied in Leipzig, Germany when philosopher
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a student there (though
they never met), and in 1869 moved to Tübingen, then in 1871 to Stuttgart. He
married Elizabeth Gatternich in 1872 and they had a daughter
Hélène. His most important book, Denken und Wirklichkeit:
Versuch einer Erneuerung der kritischen Philosophie = Thought and reality: Attempt at a renewal of critical
philosophy, was published in 1873 by his friend and publisher
J.G. (Joseph Gabriel) Findel of Leipzig. In 1878 he
contracted a lung infection and moved to Lausanne, Switzerland and in 1886 he moved
to Geneva where he died of influenza in March of 1890. Spir never held a university
appointment and therefore much of his writing remained unknown throughout his life.
Some believe his work influenced the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm
Nietzsche.

Spir's daughter, Hélène Spir Claparède, is sometimes cited as
Hélène Claparède-Spir. Her husband was Swiss psychologist
and educator, Edouard Claparède (1873-1940). They had two
children, a daughter, Eliane Claparède, and a son,
Jean Louis Claparède (1901-1937). Jean Louis Claparède was
an active proponent of the international peace movement. He died of a heart attack
at age 35.

Papers include: compositions by and about African Spir, Hélène Spir Claparède, and
Jean Louis Claparède; clippings; diary excerpts; family photographs; obituaries;
translations; transcripts; an autobiographical memoir written by Hélène Spir
Claparède; and a list of family materials held by at the Université de Genève. Some
material in this collection is original and some is typescript transcript copy
compiled and annotated by Hélène Spir Claparède.

Concerns reminiscences of her life. Envelope is annotated in French: "The
notes that follow were written . . . by the mother of the future
Jean-Louis, while waiting for her second child who was born on 1901 Aug.
13."

This item sealed as directed by her letter of April 22, 1940 [see her
letter to William Ernest Hocking in item (3) above].